Roku 4 review: A future-proofed 4K version of the best streaming box (so far)

$130 box is larger and faster, and it's overkill for most people right now.

Setting up the box and choosing channels

After you connect the Roku to your network, you'll need a phone or computer to finish up.

Andrew Cunningham

Sign in with an account to sync your feed, among other things.

Andrew Cunningham

The setup process prompts you to install a few common channels. You can always find more on the device when you're done.

Andrew Cunningham

A few services will also let you sign in at setup, but for others you'll need to do it on the box.

Andrew Cunningham

The Roku Remote app works the same with pretty much any Roku box.

Andrew Cunningham

You can view and edit your feed, issue voice commands, or even use your phone as a keyboard.

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The remote part of the remote app.

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The Roku setup process is the same as it was on the older models, but for the sake of completeness we’ll run through it quickly.

First you’ve got to connect your Roku box to your TV, pair your remote (there’s a pairing button under the battery cover), and connect it to a wired or wireless network. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be asked to go to www.roku.com/link on a phone or computer, enter a registration code, and run through the process of signing into or creating a Roku account and downloading a few commonly used channels.

For the Roku 4, you'll be recommended a handful of channels that stream 4K video, including MGo and Vudu, but there are channels for just about every video service that isn’t Apple’s. This ranges from Netflix to Hulu to HBO Go and Now to Amazon to Google Play to YouTube to any number of individual TV and cable networks. A Plex channel will cover you if you’ve got a lot of local video streaming from a Plex server. Not having iTunes content here frankly isn’t much of a handicap if you don’t have a lot of money invested in that ecosystem—you can find most iTunes content from other providers, and those other providers are almost always going to have iOS apps to accompany their Roku channels.

And this is Roku’s real advantage: it’s one of the precious few serious set-top boxes you can buy that isn’t interested in pushing any particular ecosystem. It’s got just about anything you’d want to watch, and as we’ll see, Roku OS 7 takes some steps toward unifying all of that content and making it easier to find what you want regardless of what service it’s available on.

Roku OS 7

Roku OS 7 looks a lot like Roku OS 6.

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Voice search, enabled by the Enhanced Remote.

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Pinging remotes, something unique to the Roku 4.

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Following shows, actors and actresses, directors, and other things on your feed is Roku OS 7's big improvement.

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You can make a list of as many things as you want.

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Unfortunately, your feed can't track all content sources. This includes Netflix, among others.

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This is odd, since regular searches can definitely ping Netflix.

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The Roku channel store highlights sources of 4K content.

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There are some games here, but you don't even need to scroll to see that the selection is a bit thin.

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The annoying onscreen keypad is still here if you can't or don't want to use voice commands or the remote app.

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Roku will let you change the way the OS looks with built-in and downloaded themes.

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Roku OS 7 will look very familiar to any current Roku users but introduces a few neat features that are worth talking about. And unlike Apple’s third-generation set-top box, older Roku 3 and Roku Streaming Stick units will get this update, so you don’t have to buy a whole new box to get everything (we’re checking with Roku to get a full list of boxes that will get the update). For the record, we used Roku OS 7 on the Roku 4 and a Roku 3.

The biggest new feature of Roku OS 7 is an improved feed that lets you track more than just movies. Now you can follow individual TV shows, actors and actresses, and directors. When you add any of these things to your feed, you’ll get an update every time something involving that show or person hits one of your channels.

This is an attempt to solve a problem that this TV streaming ecosystem created: a whole bunch of different shows on a whole bunch of different services. Sometimes different episodes of the same show are only available on different services. Maybe the current season of a show is only on Hulu, but if you want to get at the back episodes you need to check Amazon.

The feed solves this, in part. It makes it easier to search for things like an actual human being would search for them, without foreknowledge of what content deals Netflix or Amazon had cut with studios and cable providers. You get pricing information, too, which is handy. The problem is that not all services seem to be compatible with the feed; in particular, I never saw Netflix results for any shows in my feed even when I knew those shows were available on Netflix.

If the feed fails you, Roku’s universal search is still best-in-class, and its results include Netflix (why it can’t also be integrated into the feed is anyone’s guess).

Roku OS 7’s other new features are nice but not as universally useful. One is the ability to use Wi-Fi networks that have login pages, like the ones you’ll often find in colleges and hotels. The other is a redesigned Roku Remote app (the one we mentioned earlier) that supports your feed and lets you sync your feed between your phone and every Roku device you’re signed into.

Otherwise Roku OS 7 isn’t a huge departure from Roku OS 6. The interface is a bit more playful than in competing TV boxes—there’s an animated boot screen complete with sound effects, as well as a Halloween theme complete with bats and pumpkins—and it retains some light textures and buttons that its competitors have mostly shed in this post-Windows 8, post-iOS 7, post-Material Design phase the industry is going through. Most people won’t care, but I’ll admit that I’d be more attracted if a straightforward, minimalist white-on-black version of the UI was included out of the box.

What should new buyers get? And should old buyers upgrade?

As a consumer, what I want from streaming TV is the ability to watch whatever I want whenever I want for as little money as possible. Roku OS 7’s feed doesn’t quite get us there, though it’s a step in the right direction. Accepting that turf wars between content providers is still an unavoidable part of the streaming TV experience, how well does the Roku 4 stack up?

If you’re on the fence about which streaming box to buy, first consider which hardware and media ecosystems you’ve spent the most on. If you’ve bought a bunch of stuff in iTunes and want to use AirPlay, that’s enough to make the Apple TV worth recommending, and the fourth-generation model is still unproven but promises to be more than just a streaming box.

After that, consider price. If you just want a TV streamer for the lowest price possible, it’s hard to argue with the new Chromecast.

As for the Fire TV and the Android TV boxes out there, we’d actually recommend a Roku over either one at this point. Roku can access your Amazon Prime videos as well as anything you’ve bought from the Instant Video store, and Google Play movies and TV are available, too. Roku delivers the best of both worlds without shunting Netflix, Hulu, HBO, or any other media provider off to the side. While Amazon’s and Google’s streaming boxes promise games and other apps in addition to media streaming, neither has an ecosystem impressive enough to recommend them over Roku.

If you already own a recent Roku box or stick, especially if you’re getting the Roku OS 7 update, there aren’t many reasons to upgrade yet. Even if you’ve got a 4K TV with HDCP 2.2 support, you’re still going to need to wait for most content providers to actually start streaming 4K content.

If you want a Roku but don’t yet own one, the Roku 4 is a little more expensive than the rest of the lineup at $130, but it’s also the most future-proof. When your TV hardware and the content providers are all streaming 4K, you’ll be ready. And even if you don’t have a 4K TV yet, the Roku 4’s UI seems marginally crisper at 1080p than the Roku 3’s, and performance while you’re navigating through different streaming apps is improved, if not completely free of jankiness (that said, it’s hard to spot the differences if you’re actually streaming video). You get all the benefits of the Roku 3’s Enhanced Remote support with the promise of 4K support and software updates going forward.

The good

Huge selection of channels (including Google Play and Amazon) that doesn’t prioritize one provider over any others.

Faster internals, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and 4K support make it more future-proof than other Roku devices.

Nice selection of ports, including optical audio out and Ethernet.

Enhanced Remote has some genuinely handy features, and there’s a nice remote app for your phone.

Roku OS 7’s upgraded feed makes following shows and people easier, if not completely problem-free, and its universal search function is still excellent.

The bad

Requires HDCP 2.2 for 4K streaming, something that not all 4K-capable TVs and receivers will support.

A bit pricey compared to the Chromecast, the Roku Stick, or some of the other media sticks out there if all you want is basic streaming.

Poor selection of games, if that’s a thing you care about.

Large enough that it won’t fit everywhere a Roku 3 or Apple TV could fit.

A poor choice if you’re embedded in Apple’s media ecosystem.

Relatively high power consumption among set-top boxes.

The ugly

Streaming TV is still a maze of different companies battling each other for the rights to individual shows and movies, and there’s no one service that can give you everything you want.

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Andrew Cunningham
Andrew wrote and edited tech news and reviews at Ars Technica from 2012 to 2017, where he still occasionally freelances; he is currently a lead editor at Wirecutter. He also records a weekly book podcast called Overdue. Twitter@AndrewWrites